Boris Johnson has been heavily criticised by environmental groups for taking a private jet to Blackpool yesterday (3rd February), when he could have caught a train instead. Environmentalists say that as well as the unnecessary expense, the private plane journey created several tons of greenhouse gases which could have been avoided.

The Prime Minister’s total travelling time would have been only around 50 minutes less if he had decided to catch the train to Blackpool, instead of flying north. The Prime Minister’s 40-minute flight jetted off from London Stansted at around 10.46 am, meaning he would have left Downing Street around 9am to make it in time. But the total two-and-a-half-hour round trip to the airport and back again means he only got to his destination, Blackpool, around 50 minutes earlier than if he’d been driven to London Euston – a 17-minute drive. If he had caught the 9.10am train north he would have arrived in Blackpool at 12.16pm.

Paul Tuohy, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: ‘Flying to Blackpool sends entirely the wrong message about what sort of transport future we want. This is shocking from a Prime Minister who talks the talk on tackling climate change. Boris Johnson should have caught the train instead and emitted a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions. We will be happy to post a train timetable to 10 Downing Street if he needs a little help to travel the clean, green, responsible way.’

This criticism comes a week after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was accused of splashing out £500,000 of taxpayers’ money on a private plane to Australia.